
Glass ELlia 

Book 1112. 



LECTURE 



ON THE 



National Merits of -ttft., 

LIBERTY OF CHARACTER 



OP THE 



AMERICAN PEOPLE, 



WRITTEN BY JOSEPH TURNER. 



:f»:flio:e, i^ii^t-^ OE]iNra?s. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 

1873. 



54694 



LECTUR 



NATIONAL MERITS OF LIBERTY OF CHARACTER OF THE CONSTI- 
TION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, WHERE- 
BY WE MAY HAIL THE AGE AS ALREADY COME, TO 
BE HEARD AS THE PROUDEST EXCLAMATION OF 
MAN, "I AM AN AMERICAN." 



Thia is a subject wliich cost America her statesmen, her 
orators, her philosophers, her generals, and her soldiers, all 
they were worth to gain it, and deserves the attention of 
every man in the nation, as it is a national subject, and a 
statesman's topic of the highest order of intellectual ability; 
the merits of which awoke the tirst American orator, Patrick 
Henry; whose voice on the platform awoke the people of his 
country, and set them in a blaze of fire to see clearly. At 
that time, they were but a broom behind the door of the 
Government of Great Brittain, and after begging for ten 
years to be something more than a live broom or slave, may 
we suppose England gave us our freedom, our doors, our 
land, and the chair with the seat of Government. Did the 
South give the l!^egroes their freedom? The answer is, No. 
Neither did England give Americans their liberty, or there 
would be no merits to speak of Their liberty arose to a 
question of war with England, where the voice of Henry 
was heard, who told them unless they meant to remain as 
slaves till theyjwere transformed into beasts they must fight. 



"I repeat it, sir, we must fight," An appeal to arms and the 
God of Hosts is all that is left us. And in accordance with 
the truth of his words, America is not without her contest 
in the battle-fields of war for her rights and her liberty, and 
has experienced fight after fight, and victory after victory, 
till she has at last reached that summit of rest to overlook 
the world around in peace and liberty, among the leading 
nations of the earth ; and I will endeavor to point out some 
of the great men of the world, whose coming seems to have 
much to do in shaping the character and destiny of America, 
as well as those who had the building and framing of the 
constitution and government of the nation, its life and per- 
petuation. Once in a great period of time the world has 
seen, here and there, a few great men, who seem to be born 
in due time, and destined to move and change the character 
of man and nations, through their discoveries and inventions, 
and the works or labors of ^their studies, by which the laws 
of the nature of man and things are governed and controlled. 
Through the vital moving principles of these laws and dis- 
coveries when brought out, formed into use, and put in mo- 
tion for its purposes, nations and governments as far back as his- 
tory relates, established and built upon the partial character of 
the laws of the kings and queens of tyranny, supj^orted by the 
controlhiig power of gold or silver have fallen; changing, moul- 
dering, and fast crumbling to dust. iSTew nations have arisen, 
new governments have been established and built up, plat- 
forms of character among divisions of people, after the order 
of tyranny and slavery have been overwhelmed and rooted 
out; new laws and amendments have been administered and 
su[)portedin its place after their enlightened order, through 
the merits of education, now cultivated, and fast acquiring, 
in the great masses of the people of our country, the oft- 
spring and issues, where these great events and changes have 
taken place, as fast as the spirit of progression and the ap- 
pointed time approached us, through the coming of these 
great men. Consider the world before the coming of Pope, 
Bacon and Locke, who aroused and awakened the human 
understanding with their essays and treatise on government, 



education, and the rights of man, which moved the world of 
liumanit}' to hve and move with each man's and each na- 
tion's own rights. And they left such well-written works, 
syich sun-like thoughts and verses, to balance and guide the 
human intellect for the advancement of civilization, as was 
never seen before. The commander of an army may, with 
a line of eight words, fasten and balance his officers and sol- 
diers to stand their ground, in the battle-fields of war, so 
that they would rather be cut to pieces and. fall with the 
sword than to surrender. Wasliington's words were "llano- 
together, or we will all hang separately." If this was not 
enough to make a man see the rope and the beheading block, 
about a century ago, then nothing would. The commander 
of a ship may, by experience, learn to balance a ship, and 
his men to stand the storm and the tempest in sailing over 
the waves and waters of the ocean; but where is the com- 
mander, the philosopher, or writer, that can balance the 
spirit and temper of the hasty, erring mind of man, in sailing 
over the waves and struggles of life, equal to Alexander 
Pope? In his well known verse, 

A little learning is a dangerous thing; 

Drink deep or taste not the pierian spring. 
Their shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 

But drinking largely sobers us again. 

Greater lines than these you may have seen, but a more useful 
verse than this I have not seen. Consider the world before the 
coming of Galileo, Herschell and Newton. Wlio saw farther 
than any before him; whose name in history stands fore- 
most among the greatest minds of the human race; who, 
through one single discovery, moved the world of humanity, 
by finding out how tlie world moved. Tliat it w^as not a 
plain or flat surface resting on something solid, as formerly 
supposed, but a round ball or sphere, moving and revolving 
perpetually in its pathway with all the other spheres of the 
universe. And as plain as the morning sun breaks away the 
darkness of the night, so the knowledge and coming of this 
man dispersed the cloud and darkness from before the eyes 
of an astonished world. Consider the people before the cir- 



6 

culation of the newspaper and all the inventions of the press 
and printing', which was not long before the coming of two 
of the latest of our world's great men — Morse and Franklin — 
whose name is enrolled foremost among the American men 
of progress, and lives as the father of the arts and sciences of 
America; who, through one single invention — the lightning- 
rod — when brought out, fixed, and set in motion by Morse, 
the telegraph suddenly moved and controlled the world 
through the influence of will, as it never was before. These 
great men, with their thoughts and their writings, their dis- 
coveries and inventions of matters and things, are the lamps 
of light who guide and support the feet of our leading states- 
men ; the most profound orators, the greatest generals, the 
bravest soldiers and defenders of our country, wdiich has 
grown and become the great national field or part of the 
world, with all the natural advantages in relation to commer- 
cial and intellectual communication with the enlightened 
nations, where one great body of people live, move, and re- 
volve around each and every individual with inalienable 
rights of freedom and liberty, under one true character of 
government, in accordance with the laws of life and the su- 
preme character and order of the universe; and, through the 
conversation, iuteUigence, experience, and deeds of stability 
and enterprise in the education and established principles of the 
people, either in war or in peace, all tend to prove the ma- 
jority reason, and conform to the greatest truth for the great- 
est cause, which achieves to strengthen and build up the 
character of the constitution and government of their coun- 
try, with its controlling influences to keep step by step with 
the age and generation of the times. You may boast of a 
nation's wealth; of her giant strength and population; of in- 
telligence; of her splendid attitude and proportions of size ; 
of her grand, extensive harbors; of her great commercial 
fleets of ships, with all her privileges and advantages ; of the 
magnificent strut;tures and architecture of her buildings and 
cities ; of her agriculture — works with all her premiums of 
machinery inventions; of her fine railroads and canals, circu- 
lating and passing over the hills and plains, mountains and 



valleys of her rich lands, with auabiindance of grass, covered 
with fat cattle and a plentiful harvest, with all her vast pro- 
ductions of nature, as far as the eye or mind can perceive in 
the arts and science of man ; with all her resources; with her 
strong navy and powerful fortifications combined, she^may yet 
stand in doubtful and terminable circumstances, for all these 
are only the means of her support or existence for a period, 
while the grand secret of success in the life and strength of 
man and nations is treasm'ed and remembered in the honor 
and order of their just and most truthful character. The 
railroad and the stage-road, with their lightning protecting 
messenger, the telegraph, going side by side, which now em- 
braces the civilized world, joining state to state, city 
to city, and nation to nation, from shore to shore; making 
the hills and mountains level, and in like manner turning the 
seas and waters of the great deep into dry land, so that the 
matter passes through among the fishes, the same as with the 
birds in the open air, before the eyes of intelligent and rea- 
sonable people that nothing but a man or nation of truth and 
honor will be recognized with much of any respect or atten- 
tion; for all these support character, which is the vital prin- 
ciple of life. And through the threads^of life of Washington 
and Lincoln, our deliverer and martj-r, and the never to be 
forgotten Jackson, with the eloquence and knowledge of our 
great statesmen and orators, who drank deep in learning, 
we may illustrate the national merits of liberty of character 
of the constitution and government of the American people; 
Washington and Lincoln being the two great national prin- 
cipals of freedom and libei-ty through the American wars. 
One, the founder and builder of the constitution and govern- 
ment of his country, through the revolutionary war with 
England; the other, the vital moving part in the life and per- 
petuation of the nation through the war of the rebellion, in 
the extermination of slavery, which had been so stinging and 
poisoning the life's blood from the center of the heart and 
character of the nation, till the war between the Northern 
and Southern States, which proved the triumphant death 
and decision of the great national question of slavery and 



misery of our country, of whicli they Avere relieved through 
the administration of Abraham Lincohi, the great Republi- 
can, martyred President; him, who saw clearly by way of 
truth and reason, that liberty of character, and not slavery 
and money, to be the standard, the vital moving part and the 
greatest controlling power in the life of man and nations ; so 
that they could neither honorably demand nor control their 
country's rights with the civilized nations, without a char- 
acter of the truest order of man's individual and national 
rights, which could not be gained but b}' paying the strictest 
attention to the rights of man in each and every state and 
portion of the Union. Against these rights were thirteen 
Southern States, with a platform of character of slavery or 
despotism; the love of wealth or money gained by the in- 
human love of human property or slavery. Averse to truth 
and reason and all humanity, they arose prepared, and pro- 
voked a contest with a blow to the Northern States for a di- 
vision line, for which they arrayed themselves, with the 
sword, the cannon, and all the implements of war, to fi^ht 
against the twin brother of the great deliverer of their country 
whose eyes had been long closed in death, his breath and his 
voice hushed and silenced in the darkness of the grave; who 
was the standard of liberty, the emblem of America; the edge 
and point of whose sword, about a century before, cut the 
fetters and bonds of tyranny, marked and established the di- 
vision lines between his countrj' and one of the strongest 
and most powerful nations of war that ever crossed the wa- 
ters of our boundaries, for the oneness of these boundary 
lines and the oneness of the emblem of liberty, the standard 
and character of our nation and country. Him, Abraham 
Lincoln, sane and well, knew the appointed time of his des- 
tiny had come, either to save or to lose, to divide or not to 
divide, to surrender or not to surrender to the Southern 
States for one of the basest and most abominable evils or 
curses ever entailed on the mind and character of man and 
nations. And tyranny or slavery for the love of money is 
evidently the cause of all the great wars and bloodshed ever 
recorded in the oldest history of the world to the present 



time, the truth of which awakened and stirred the spirit and 
mind of our ruler and administrator, to weigh the world and 
the leading nations. He saw they halanced in his favor, 
with the greatest truth for the greatest cause — which is lib- 
erty and not slavery. lie who also weighed the influence of 
his own name in his own country on the side of the ISTorthern 
States. He well knew from a child and from early manhood 
he had been called the name of Honest Abe, and as he slow- 
ly reached the years of experience and knowledge, which 
matured his judgment and understanding, by which he 
aimed and gained the position and the controlling power to 
the ascension of the chair where, as the chief magistrate of 
the laws of our land, he was considered a man of truth; and 
in relation to all cases and great national questions of the law 
and character of the people, which was brought before him, 
his judgment and understanding was able to penetrate to the 
truth of the matter, even if it were hidden in the darkest cor- 
ner of the earth, as he ofttimes brought it to light before the 
eves and hearing of the most distinguished and astonished 
judges, jurymen, and the ablest statesman and orators ever 
assembled in the Senate Chamber or court-house of the 
American people. But he was not a general or a warrior, 
for he never grasped the sword to cut his way through the bat- 
tle-fields of war, like him the spectacle of whose face alone was 
victory to an army, and the language of his words was un- 
flinching, forward, conquering, and to conquer; the rope, the 
footstool, and the beheading block of the kings and queens 
of tyranny; who, through the influence of his own name, 
through the influences of all his forces, through the influence 
of the roar of his cannon and all the implements of 
war, through the influence of the mighty terror of all his 
master victories, made that lion nation— the mistress of the 
seas — stop and consider. They were fighting with a danger- 
ous and an unconquerable defender of manhood, justice and 
hberty ; and through the generalship of a noble and manly 
warior, with his thread of men, British oflicer's and En- 
gland's soldiers saw more than they ever saw before, and 
feared more than they ever feared before; and he was not 
2 



10 

the only one they feared, for a report from a British officer 
which resounded across the water, in his own words to En- 
gland, that Green was as dangerous as AVashington, and they 
quailed, yielded, and surrendered the land of freedom to the 
care and consignment of the illustrious champion of liberty-, 
the AVashington of America — the first and greatest of Ameri- 
cans who saw clearly, by way of truth and reason, that lib- 
erty of character, and not tyranny or money, to be the stand- 
ard, the vital moving part, and the greatest controlling power 
in the life of man and nations; whose national mind of sense 
was able to measure the length, breadth, and depth of the 
vital principles of the great truths laid down in the founda- 
tion and basis of the written instrument which first formed, 
framed, and established the constitution and government of 
his countr3^ AVhich, after having affixed the signature of 
his name and the seal of government, passed the house of 
Congress, and on the fourth day of July, 1776, was recognized 
and commemorated as the declaration of the independence of 
America. The merits for which they fought, and the em- 
blem of liberty — the eagle flag of stars and stripes — repre-' 
senting the character @f a new nation and a new government? 
waved for the first time in the great republic of our country? 
before the eyes of an astonished and overjoyed people, who 
unanimously elected their leader as the standard of its support 
for two terms, and after having seen it raised every fourth da}^ 
of July for eight years, resigned his position to others, with the 
honor of being the first president of his country; with the 
honor of defending and gaining his country's rights and se- 
curing their national independence and liberty; with the 
honor of being the founder and builder of a new nation and 
a new government, for which the signature of his name was 
side by side with the leading statesmen and standard-bearers, 
Adams, Jefferson, and others, in the great diplomatic deed 
or Declaration of Independence, securing and entitling him 
and our government to the land of America throughout all 
its boundary lines, for which the flag of liberty waved in tri- 
umph to the honor and immortal name of AVashington. 
There is yet another very great honor Avhich so much im- 



11 

mortalizes the name of Wasliiugton, that will have its eon- 
trolling influences throughout all ages till wars shall cease 
and time shall be no more : that is, the honor with which 
he bequeathed his sword to the heirs before he died, which 
he wore in the war for libert}', never to be drawn from the 
scabbard unless in self-defense, or in defense of their country 
and her freedom, and in command, when thus drawn, never 
to sheathe it nor ever give it ii}), but prefer tailing with it iu 
their hands to the relinquishment tliereof. 

Lord Brougham, in his speech on the consummate glory 
of "Washington, said words the majesty and simple eloquence 
of which was not unsurpassed in the oratory of Athens and 
Rome. In accordance with this command, the sword would 
never be drawn. Mind would be the standard of man and 
nations, alone of itself, without the assistance of the body or 
muscular part, so that the flesh would not be cut or bruised 
nor a bone broken. The matter would be made straight in 
the chair-room and not in the battle-field. But the w^orld 
has not yet got so far along as that. But our generals and 
leaders paid attention to his command, and followed his foot- 
steps, as near as possible, as was afterwards seen, for En- 
gland w^as not quite satisfied till the center of her heart was 
pierced by the sword of Hickory Jackson, with his thread of 
men, at the battle of New Orleans, where heaps upon heaps 
fell with a victorious slaughter till he twisted and turned the 
lamentable remaining fleet of the choicest army of England, 
whereby she learned to pay attention to the rights of the 
people of his country, and through the merits of the truth of 
liberty, balanced the character of his nation's manhood while 
he lived; and the sword was sheathed with the honor of de- 
fending and supporting a nation's rights and securing a de- 
cided treaty of peace between the two nations — the on]y pur- 
pose for which it was drawn, and for which the flag of liberty 
waved in trium[>h through the honor and immortal name of 
the never to be forgotten hero of liberty, the Jackson of 
America. But the ignoble counterfeit platform of tyranny 
and slavery was again spreading in the land of freedom, till 
it covered a space of over one-third the number of States in 



12 

the Union, when, through the giant strides of the American 
elave-hokler, the flag of Hberty was in clanger of being cut 
down and trampled under foot, to wave no more as the life 
and light of the nation. But his Excellency, Lincoln, who 
then held the ruling power at the capital — the seat of govern- 
ment, where a man of truth or eagle spirit is chosen every 
four years to sit, to rule the universal American nation and 
guide their flag of stars and stripes — had already said in his 
patriotic speech in early manhood, that he would suffer 
chains in bonds and in death before slavery should trample 
it ; and in size, in form, and in stature, in the force and truth 
of his words, was equal to the champion of liberty before him ; 
and in spirit of mind, nobleness of nature, and love of coun- 
try, was the marked impression in the features of his counte. 
nance that the truth of his ambition was in the liberty and 
oneness of the character of his nation. Strong and vigorous 
both in body and mind, through the labor of his own hands, 
for it is well known in early life, if he never grasped the 
sword, he used and sharpened his own ax, cut and split his 
own rails, and you may judge they were full-sized ones, for 
he could not believe in pieces or halves of either rails or na- 
tions; and the implements of his labors was held with a true 
and honest hand, and his course was steered with a good eye. 
Although he may have climbed the rough and rocky side of 
the ascension, he saw brighter things than many who travel 
the smooth way, and by all who saw or felt the edge of his 
mind, in mowing his swath in the political tield of his labors, 
were many times sharpened by the truth of his words, and 
through the influence of will, evinced and fixed by the lamp 
of his experience, with a confidence to believe that his course 
was right, and that the line of his direction was as straight 
and just to protect their country's rights as him who gained 
it for them. This gave him confidence that the people of 
the Northern States would fight together under his guid- 
ance and amendments for liberty or death, to save or protect 
their country's rights, encircling all its boundary lines, and 
as the blow was already struck at Fort Sumter, the flesh 
and blood of the Northern States was awakened and on tire. 



13 

so that the bone and muscle of the people on both sides was 
aroused to their fall strength for the fight and the mastery 
of liberty or slavery, for which our ruler stood his ground. 
Measures had been adopted in all forms to loosen the 
bonds without fighting, but he seemed destined to call out 
the volunteers and defenders of our country, with the sword, 
the cannon, and all the implements of war now on the throne 
of self-defense, to change the brute-like platform of the 
Southern States to the standard and character of their nation 
and country, by taking away the sting of slavery, which is 
equal to the sting of death — from the center of the heart of 
a ruinous, nationless race of N'egroes, so that the people 
which now compose and control the great, powerful, progres- 
sive and influential nation of America are living under a 
higher and nobler order of intellectual, national influence of 
character than they ever lived before, the merits of which 
will prove most truthfully to themselves, and honorably gain 
the influence and respect of the most enlightened nations of 
the world, with a confidence which they never saw so clearly 
before since the birthday of their eagle flag of stars and stripes, 
which he guided and supported through the rebellion till the 
stains and tortures of the sting of slavery were no longer 
seen or felt. As the North stood with him till the great na- 
tional question of slavery was written and decided in his 
Emancipation Proclamation as it never was before, a ques- 
tion which brought out the talent and ability of the ablest 
statesmen, and passed the spirit and power of the oratorical 
eloquence of the Webster of America, the truth of whose 
words was enough to make the flesh and blood of Southern 
manhood sweat, so that their bodies steamed like the vapor 
that pass between the earth and the sun, till they allowed 
the ground on which they stood to yield the fruits of free la- 
bors, tilled and worked with the rights of man, in accordance 
with the laws and examples of a progressive age. But no; 
tyranny would i-ather die a slave to the implements of war 
and see a nation drowned in blood before they would yield 
to the laws and amendments of progression, which is gov- 
erned and controlled through the merits of education, founded 



14 

upon one great truth or basis of the character of the laws of 
human nature and equahty of the vital principles of honor, 
justice, and liberty, for which, with sword in hand, the great 
Republic of the North moved on in the battle-fields of war, 
supported by the same truth which supported them once be- 
fore in the revolutionary war with England, which was the 
truth of the examples of the laws of progression that fell from 
the lips of Patrick Henry, the forest-bora Demosthenes of 
America, the only man I ever heard of that was carried out 
of the court-house for his eloquence ; for such was his elo- 
quence in searching the truth in his famous law case when, 
he pleaded against the parsons, that some of the assembly 
carried him out of the house on their shoulders ; and when 
they carried out that man, I claim they carried out one-third 
of the constitution and government of their country, because 
it is well known that were it not for the sword of Washing- 
ton, the eloquence of Henry, and the pen of Payne, America 
would have been lost; and such was his eloquence in the 
speech of his learning and experience before the people of 
his country for their cause and their liberty. Ceasar had his 
Brutus; Charles the First his Crom^vell ; and let George 
the Third profit by their examples, and the truth of a few 
words in another speech, " Grive me liberty orgive me death," 
which awakened them to their cause, their rights, and their 
country. But Gleorge the Third was like all other tyrants 
before him ; never profited in anything but by the sword, 
with which he was determined to prove the manhood and 
liberty of America, and after the works of war had com- 
menced, with sword in hand, hear the words of our deliverer 
and their leader, "Hang together, or we will all hang sepa. 
rately;" the truth of which nerved every man's arm in the 
country with the strength that fastened his hand with a grip 
to the sword to follow him for liberty or death ; who saw 
plainly he held his own sword with his rights to his will and 
his heart in his right hand, with a determined grip, never, 
never, never to loosen his hold in protecting his country's 
rights, till he gained his nation's freedom ; the independence 
and hberty of the American people. This is the same truth 



15 

which supported the Nortliern people to fight the Southern 
people, who had been living and controlling the Negroes to 
work for them, till their hearts were harder than stone and 
their heads became as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, for 
they erringly tinkled and breathed to England to assist them 
divide, who had wiselj^ loosened the bonds of slavery in all 
her dominions a little before, by which she saw and well 
knew the truth of our cause, our liberty, and our country, 
balanced in favor with the leading nations and through one 
powerful invention, the telegraph, which was fast controlling 
the world through the influence of will, in changing the 
character of man and nations, in turning their attention to 
the just standard of the law and the rights of man, and 
through the influence of the name of Morse, the inventor, 
who having received, a few years before, such great honors 
and presents from those nations, and a collective testimonial 
of four hundred thousand francs, which must have deeply 
and respectfully united America in heart and hand with 
them ; so that the voice of freedom and liberty was echoing 
and reaching from the center of the heart of man}- nations, 
which secretly, but strongly and surely bound and fastened 
that powerful nation to stay at home and mind her own busi- 
ness as all the other nations most honorably done so when 
the Southern people saw this, that their slavery was digging 
for them a dishonorable grave and an empty principle from 
whence no honorable man or nation ever recognized or 
ofiered them assistance; they began to see their land of cot- 
ton was looked upon as the last white man's slave-field or 
dunghill of the world, where the slaves and their slavehold- 
ers were buried together, the region of darkness overshad- 
owed by the sting of death and slavery, from whence there 
was no ray of light to see to inscribe the name on the tomb- 
stone of their dead, for better remain uncarved than be writ- 
ten under the ignoble character of slavery, that would read 
below the beasts of the field, which turned their eyes and 
their faces to our freedom and liberty and the merits and 
principles in the motto of their country. Our national re- 
sources are developed by an earnest culture of the arts of 



16 

peace for which they began to breathe; and the great com- 
mander-in-chief of all the Southern armies, Greneral Lee, 
surrendered, gave up the sword, laid down their arms to the 
national merits of liberty of character of the constitution and 
government of the American people, gained and established 
by him whose name is ever remembered and treasured in 
the patriot hearts of heroic generals and soldiers of the 
N'orthern armies called out and guided through the spirit 
and mind of the nation's lamented martyr, the Lincoln of 
America. Wheu the truth, in the lines of his Emancipation 
Proclamation, with all its powerful language of equity, justice, 
and liberty to that nationless, bondaged race, took its place as 
a law in the standard of liberty, the constitutiion and govern- 
ment of the United States ; and in a few days when the na- 
tion was breathing for rest, and sighing for peace, and all the 
implements of war were laid down, and the armies on both 
sides were returning to their homes with the knowledge and 
understanding that the last battle gun was fired ; on the 
eventful evening of April 14th, 1865, when the people from 
the capitol were assembled together in one of the theatres of 
life, when the house was filled with mirth, as the actors were 
on the stage, lo, a sound as the lights went out, which awoke 
the angel of death, that spread his wings on the blast and 
breathed in the face of the foe, as he passed in the stealth 
of night with a pistol in his hand. The shot was fatal for 
the words which fell from the lips of the dying man, "I am 
no more," proved in a few hours that Abraham Lincoln was 
no longer among the living; the thread of life was cut; his 
course was run; the fight was over, of which his death was 
to balance the victory. I will now give you a verse to his 
memory, the best my pen can afford. 

And he stood for the Union till a martyr he fell, 
That the truth of his ambition forever may wave; 

In the emblem of liberty for which they fought well, 
As the life and the light of the nation to save. 

And the nation was shocked, as the implements of war were 
already laid down, and the sword was sheathed, with the 
honor of defending, supporting, and restoring a nation's 



17 

rights and her just merits of liberty of character; the only 
purpose for which it was drawn, and for w4iich he fell a mar- 
tyr; and the feelings of the people who witnessed the death 
and burial of the departed spirit of this man were rent in 
twain, from the highest to the lowest, for they saw plainly 
that his ambition blended with their ambition and waved 
with his nation's emblem, which is a representation of the 
greatest national honor to his character that he was the vital 
moving part of its retrieved perpetuation, for it M^aves as it 
never waved before, with freedom and liberty to every one 
throughout all our boundary lines, and stands as the victory 
over the sting of slavery, death, and the grave, of one of the 
greatest political martyrs ever recorded in the history of the 
world, who left his nation and his country living and glow- 
ing with the spirit and ambition of his and our deliverer's 
honor, justice, and liberty to all posterity before the eyes of 
an enlightened world, for which the immortal name of 
Abraham Lincoln will be remembered with a remembrance 
that will live and circulate from man to man, from nation to 
nation, as long as the flag of stars and stripes shall wave 
truly and ambitiously to the standard of liberty, with tlie 
strictest attention to the rights of man and the rights of na- 
tions ; for is not the rights of man and nations the bread of 
life to the flesh and blood of man and nations, and is not 
the truth of liberty the breath of life to the vital mov- 
ing part in the centre of the heart or mind of man 
and nations? As is food or bread to the sharp- 
ness of him that is starving with hunger, and as is water to 
the parched tongue of him that can scarcely breathe, who is 
famishing with thirst, so in like manner is freedom and lib- 
erty to the center of the heart or mind of man and nations. 
For these rights and the wrongs of slavery our nation was 
long divided against itself, and as no man or nation ever 
gained an honorable end by dishonorable means, slavery be- 
ing one of the meanest, the most despicable, and utterly the 
most ruinous for its tyrant examples to the mind and charac- 
ter of man and nations, had to be cut out with a great war 
and a great slaughter amongst ourselves, while freedom and 
3 



18 

liberty, with our cause and our country, lives, and eight years 
has been added to the nineteenth century of the new Chris- 
tian era since the world first witnessed the downfall and 
overthrow of slavery in the great divisionary part of the 
Southern people of our 'country, where the bread of slavery 
is no longer eaten and the voice and the rod of the slave- 
holder's tyranny, and the cry of the slave for his liberty is 
seen and heard no more. But why were they to be fought 
out of their slavery? Why was the bonds of slavery to be 
loosened? Why was the weight of the American slaveholder 
to be removed from the back of the black man, upon which 
they had been so long resting? They bought them and 
claimed a right to them, but there was a time to buy and a 
time to give liberty, and since the coming of Newton, who 
loosened the world from its resting-place, and set it moving 
and revolving with harmonious liberty with all the other 
spheres of the universe; since the date of that discovery, to- 
gether with the discoveries and writings of other men, the 
bonds of tyranny and the weight of one man upon another 
have been cutting and loosening throughout the leading na- 
tions. Consider the writings and inHuences of such immeas- 
urable minds and gifts of nature as Milton, Shakespeare, 
Burns, or Byron. Think of the heartrending impression of 
only one line from]Burns : "Man's inhumanity to man makes 
countless millions mourn." Would not the truth of these 
words awaken and set fire the heart and mind of those states- 
men and orators who held the position and such controlling 
power of government as Pitt, Chatham, Brougham, orralm- 
erston, of England, who stood in that nation much the 
same as Henry, Hamilton, Cla}-, or Webster, in America, 
and from Pitt to Palmerston the bonds of slavery was loos- 
ened throughout the dominions of that kingdom, and tyr- 
anny of character and the inhuman taxation and oppression 
to the mother's home of the American Irish have changed 
so that Ireland to-day is much the same as England. But it 
seems that a part of the Irish heart or mind beats and 
breathes for a little more than this. It has been repeated, 
are they never to be any more than a West Briton ? That 
is, are they never to be a nation, so that such men as Daniel 
O'Connell may be the standard of their own laws and their 
own government. And when he had said his say, it would 
be as much I'or Ireland as Brougham's was for England, or 
Webster's for America. But, we may ask, what is the ditfer- 
ence to constitute one-third of a great nation, or to stand 
alone as a small one-man nation ? But little or no difference 
if the government is founded upon a basis of equality and 



19 

liberty, so that one be not the lords and masters, and the 
other the slave or workino^man. It is well for the working- 
man that England had a Brongham, for Brongham said mnch 
for England and ni'ich for hnnianitj, the merits of education 
and science ; and his speech on the (!5haracter of Washington 
is a consideration of the ability and respect of one of En- 
gland's greatest and most distinguished statesmen and ora- 
tors, who drank deep in learning and knowledge, whereby 
he understood the laws of nature of government and the 
rights of man and nations, so that I think he must have 
seen a bright view of the national merits of liberty of char- 
acter of the constitution and government of the American 
people, whose voice and his eloquence once resounded across 
the line with all its powerful influences of equity and justice ; 
and Brougham is the orator who never came and went be- 
fore us without leaving his speech for our Washington, and 
the consummate glory in the libert}^ of his character ; and he 
well knew the truth and the hght which guided and sup- 
ported the feet of that man for his rights and his liberty is 
the same truth and the spirit which supports every law of 
nature and every motion and action of manhood's intellect, 
for which he will be remembered with a remembrance that 
will live on an eminence with the mind, intelligence, and voice 
of Webster, who said much for America and much for hu- 
manity, the merits of education, the union and liberty, and 
drank deep in the truth of hberty of learning and knowledge, 
so that he understood the laws of hfe of government and the 
rights of man and nations, and stood in his own nation at the 
head of the government, when the people of the Southern 
States was looked upon with the last White Man's platform 
of slavery and despotism. And when side by side lived the 
American and the American slaveholder, and although he 
crushed and ground to powder the supposed unanswerable 
bills of the two great Southern leaders, Calhoun and Haynes, 
yet they turned their faces against the eloquence of their 
noblest statesman, and refused to give the Black Man his lib- 
erty ; althoudi he could not break the bonds of slavery asun- 
der, he prepared the way for its overthrow as though he 
prepared it not, and balanced the character of his nation's 
rights and her liberties while he lived, which may be seen 
from his giant speech on one of his master topics ; the con- 
tributions'of America to Europe, or the action and influence 
of the new world upon the old, supi)orting all he said by 
pointing to the head of the nation, Washington. If Ameri- 
can institutions had done nothing else, the character of 
Washino-ton alone would have entitled them to the respect 



20 

of mankind. He claimed him for America — not for the 
ISTorthern States, but for America. Of all that I have seen, 
this was Webster's greatest speech, and the one by which he 
framed, and carved, and made his mark for his conntry and 
himself, and stands as one of the greatest lights for the guid- 
ance and respect of a nation's character, to be found in the 
English language. He pointed clearly that the great current 
wave and its impulse in all the moving and revolving trans- 
actions of man to man, and government to government, must 
be balanced and supported by the same truth and spirit which 
supported the feet of Washington, And to stop the spirit 
and power of the American people in defense of their coun- 
try and her freedom, you may as well try to stop the 
world from moving and turn it backwards; her march is on- 
ward, her character is firmly shaped, and the union for lib- 
erty is bound to grow stronger and stronger. 

For every thinking man, black or white, in the na'ion, 
Is bound to think deeper and deeper through the merits of education; 
Till they all drink deep in "Webster's master topics and Pope's essays, 
Which supports the rights of man, the union, and liberty. 

But before reaching the truth of my experience in answer- 
ing the question of my subject, I must first speak of the com- 
ing of two of the latest of our nation's great men — Morse and 
Franklin, who brought with them the lightning and the tele- 
graph, which is one of the greatest controlling powers of the 
world for the support and reform of character ; its use and 
purpose now concerns the interest and welfare, in the pro- 
tection of life and property, of every individual, person and 
child throughout the civilized nations. It has overtaken the 
thief, the robber, and murderer, fastened, chained, and bound 
him, hand and foot, without touching him, and without 
harming a hair of his head, so that in no part or corner of 
the earth can he hide himself without "Stop thief!" or, "Stop 
murderer!" gets there long before he does. In the black 
and dark night it has made him stop and consider his ways, 
and through the influence of will, fastened and stayed every 
nerve from propelHng his foot to take a wrong step and his 
hand from doing a wrong act or deed. He sees and knows 
that the world is comparatively possessed with two nervous, 
transacting, electric systems — an inward nervous, electric 
system of man, and an outward nervous, electric system of 
wires, on which thought and matter of all that transpires, 
circulates with lightning rapidity from place to place; which 
controls him to mind his own business and leave other peo- 
ple's alone, and if he means to get his own living independ- 



21 

eiitly as his own master, outside of the jail or prison, he must 
gain it honestly through the influence of his own name. 

Among all the many and important influences which re- 
late to the interest or welfare of man, whether it be the influ- 
ence of wealth or money, of educatioii or ability, of friends or 
rehitions, of society, of state or national, there is none which 
strikes the very center of the heart or mind so forcibly and 
with so much inestimable value as the influence or reputation 
of a man's own name for his character. It is the foundation 
and basis of a man's success in anv station or position in life, 
from the laboring man to the business farmer ; from the 
merchant to the lawyer; the statesman and the greatest gen- 
eral or philosopher the world ever saw, for the influence of a 
man's name behind his back, or in circulation around him, 
is stronger and more powerful than the man himself, the 
means or money either to establish or to destroy him. 

When the world first witnessed the invention of the tele- 
graph, its use and invaluable worth to all humanity, the in- 
fluence of the name of Morse must have been hke a two- 
edged sword, that cut both ways, and if the name of Wash- 
ington entitled us to the respect of mankind, the name of 
Morse and Franklin has gained and will firmly hold it as 
long as the lightning circulates on the wires, for tliis was a 
deed and an invention to the world which pierced the center 
of the heart of man and nations so successfully that the 
power of the truth of its worth and the great current wave of 
his learning and genius in circulation lit up the people into 
such a blaze of light that the fire of the impulse of life would 
have scorched them to death unless they had given him their 
presents and gifts of money, in order to be relieved of their 
feelings, and acknowledge the greatness of the invention and 
the remembrance of his coming from age to age. And 
I suppose no man in any age ever received so many presents 
and gifst of money as Morse. The knowledge and wisdom 
of Solomon astonished the people of his age ; so they 
brought him all kinds of presents and gifts, for searching the 
truth" and answering their questions ; but no age ever saw or 
experienced such great inventions and discoveries of liumau 
knowledge for the advancement and ])re-eminence of man as 
since the coming of Morse and Franklin, whose names will 
be remembered with a remembrance that will hve for in- 
numerable generations, long after their bodies withered and 
died. And the. controlling influence of the telegraph, 
as well as other discoveries, had nmch to do in hastening the 
war and the overthrow of slavery. What could civilized na 
tions say who was looking on and watching the fight, after 



22 

experiencing the circulation of the newspaper and all the 
merits and inventions of printing and steam-power, the dis- 
coveries and courses of the spheres, as they move and revolve 
around with harmonious liberty; and after fully experiencing 
the telegraph with all its startling and apprehensive impres- 
sions in changing the character of all classes of men, in speak- 
ing silently but plainly to the center of the heart of man — to 
be a man, an intelligent, thinking man; a man of trutli, and 
not a liar, a thief, an animal, a brute, a tyrant, or a slave- 
holder; but as intelligent men and nations, who looked on 
and saw the fight — what could they say more than this? One 
world with all her nations ; each nation with a nation's rights ; 
each man with manhood's rights and manhood's voicia of free- 
dom and liberty. For this voice and these rights was the 
fetters and bonds of tyrannj' and slavery to be broken. For 
this voic;e and these rights was the coming of all the great 
men of the world, and the truth and light by which they saw 
all their thoughts and their writings, their discoveries and in- 
ventions, is the same truth and the light which guided and 
supported the feet of him who traveled the dangerous path- 
way of war till he saw the time and the destined place where 
he met the great commander-in-chief of all the British ar- 
mies, face to face; to whom Cornwallis surrendered, and the 
fetters and bonds of the kings and queens of tyranny was 
broken, which proved the manhood and liberty of America, 
This is the same truth and the same spirit which guided and 
supported the feet of him who stood his ground against the 
chosen army of England, which was sent out a few years af- 
terwards, as a double proof to the manhood and liberty of 
America. And no doubt England began to think with Pack- 
ingham, their commander, that Jackson Was as clangerous as 
Washington, and that the spirit of Washingtcm would never 
die, for the American Hickory was as good and tough as 
England's oak. This is the same truth and spirit which sup 
ported the feet and voice of all our great statesmen and 
orators, from Henry to Webster and Seward, and the same 
truth and the same spirit which guided and supported the 
feet of him who saw the time and the destined place where 
face to face was Lee's surrender, and the voice of the slave- 
holder's tyranny and the cry of the slave for his liberty was 
heard no more in America. Tliis is tlie same truth and the 
same spirit which guided and supported the feet of him who 
stood as the life and perpetuation of the nation, till the night 
that shaped the end and the object of his coming, that we 
may seethe truth and the light which supported the national 
merits of liberty of character of the constitution and govern- 



23 

ment of the American people, throngli all their fights and 
their elections, from age to age, and in miison with the truth 
and voice of the writer who said we may hail the age as not 
far distant when will be heard as the proudest exclamation 
of man, "I am an American!" 

I say, we may hail the time as already come, for the 
American slaveholder is no more. AVhere is the boy but 
would rather hear his father called an American than a slave- 
holder? No smart boy, at ten years of age, unless it would 
be to sympathize with the old man in order to fool him, to 
save himself from awhijjping; for the voice of manhood 
and the merits and principles in the truth of liberty of charac- 
ter is worth more to tlie boy than all the slaves or the money 
the old man was ever fought out of, or the national debt 
included. With all her fights, her debts, and her elections, 
I like America, because it is a self-made nation of a self- 
made people, where every man's success is in accordance 
with the influence of his own name and character; because 
it is a self-made government of our greatest intellectual men, 
elected by the people, by the voice and principle of ever}'- 
man in the nation, with equal rights of freedom and liberty 
of character; and as a man's heartis in his rights, his lib- 
erty, and character, the character of his nation and govern- 
ment will be in his heart, and either in war or in peace, 
every man's heart will be in his right hand, to defend and 
support it, wdiich is the best evidence I can give and the 
surest foundation of a government's or a nation's strength 
and her just merits of liberty of character, and as the glory of 
a young nation was in her strength for her liherty and the 
rights of man, may the glory of an old nation be in the 
right of man and her liberty for her strength, and w^e can 
say, through the influence and character of our statesmen, 
our orators, our generals, and our soldiei's, that George the 
Third, or rather Cornwallis, had his Washington; Packing- 
ham had his Jackson; Lee had his Grant, and Davis had 
his Lincoln, and let the world profit by their examples. 

I will endeavor to explain those examples to see in what 
way they may profit. The first one is a very straight one: 
that it is better to surrender to an honorable man for a just 
cause, and see the merits of that cause, all the great lessons, 
great examples, deeds, and inventions of a new nation and a 
new government supported by the rights of man and the 
truth of liberty, than for a tyrant to whip and never see 
nothing but a tyrant's cause, deeds, and examples. The 
language and character by which the sword of America 
was sheathed is one of the greatest examples or deeds 



24 

that the world ever saw. The second one may be ex- 
plained this way : That it was better for the center of the 
heart of England to be pierced by the lamentable stories 
of those who returned from that terrible battle, and see 
clearly that the spirit of Washington would never die, and 
prove the merits of liberty of character, than to whip 
and never have a decided treaty of peace. The third one is 
rather hard and crooked. We may explain it this way : If 
a brother would tight a brother, to give a Negro his liberty, 
what would he do to give a brother or a White man his lib- 
erty? They would liberate him, and if a blow was struck 
for his refusal, they would fight and hang on to the fight with 
tlie toughness of hickorj^ and the spirit of the old eagle, till 
the refusals or enemy were cornered and surrounded, with 
their supplies cut off, till their eyes and their faces looked 
one upon another for bread and water; the same as General 
Lee and his soldiers did just before they surrendered. 

" And better for them to surrender who struck the first blow, 

That tlie emblems of liberty forever may wave 
O'er the bright, sunny South and the North with her snow, 

As the life and the light in the home of the brave." 

The fourth one may be explained this way : That it is 
better for a man to stand his ground and gain the fight to 
be one nation and one people, and fall a martyr for the flag 
of manhood's honor, than to live and see a tyrant's flag or a 
division line; that it is better to cry out with the last breath 
as the ball took his life, " I am no more ! " and see America 
more than it ever was before, than to live and die or 
tall a prey to any less than the proud exclamation, "I am an. 
American ! " which proves that the truth and the spirit 
which supports the national merits of libertj^ of character 
is of tlie greatest truth and the greatest cause, and that there 
is no truth in tyranny and slavery, which must die. It also 
proves that the reasoning faculty, as the standard of truth 
and justice, is fast becoming the predominant or ruling 
power in the mind of man and nations. Pope said that self- 
love and reason was the two standard moving powers of the 
mind, and the Old AVorld of kings and queens for a tyrant's 
cause. Selfishness for the love of money was the ruling 
power a century ago. England may have thought it pretty 
hard to be fought out of America, but half a century from 
that date, through the merits of freedom, they received a gift 
or deed in returii,from Morse — the telegraph — which is worth 
more to them to-day than America would be without it, and 
as one good deed deserves another, the name of Morse to 
France is much the same as Lafayette's to America. 



25 

Had it been a Negro that made the invention, it would 
have been enough to entitle him to his freedom, and it ought 
to have gained it for them; but because they were never 
considered much account, only for what they could do with 
their hands, as slaves, they were bound to be kept so as 
long as they could, partly as an excuse because it was 
thought their backs could stand the warm sun a little better, 
without pay, than the White Man's. But who knows, with- 
in a period of half a century from the date of their freedom, 
but that some Negro, through the merits of education, may 
come out with as great an invention as the telegraph, which 
may entitle them to the respect of the White Man, for this 
seems to be the principal resource by which the White Man 
gained his, and the strides of intellect by which the Negro 
may expect to gain his. People are learning to move and 
value people for their mind and character, and notaltogether 
by circumstances, money, or color. The statesmanship and 
coming of Lincoln moved the character and government of 
America two steps ahead at once, which was one step further 
than a great many could see at that time. To give the Ne- 
gro his liberty, that step was just and right; but when the 
Fifteenth Amendment was first administered that the Negro 
was to have a vote and franchise, this was a little more than 
some were prepared for. They knew there was a great dif- 
ference between the words slavery and liberty, but they 
never saw or knew the word liberty resembled the word 
equality so much before. But the majority have decided to 
think now that it is right for the Black Man to have a vote 
and franchise, and not be left as a broom behind the door of 
the government of our land of liberty, to be brushed around 
as an anti-citizen, without a vote to respect his rights or his 
name. Give a man his citizenship, and a vote, in a time of 
peace, will grant him a warranty deed to educate himself for 
the occasion, and the power and the will to make two men 
with the sword in a time of war, although there seems to be 
a few who talk about pure blood or pure color yet. But the 
question is, whether pure blood means pure gold or pure 
tyranny, or pure truth and pure liberty. Some are afraid 
they will be judged by a Negro, which looks like false pride. 
Far better to be judged by a Black Man with a white heart 
and a clear head of truth and justice, than a White Man 
with a black heart and a smiling face that would betray you 
for money. 

Do not be deceived. Do not look altogether on the out- 
ward appearance or fine color of matters or things. Byron 
said, to be well dressed would ofttimes supersede the rest. 
4 



26 

Do not be fooled, then, by standing half-way between the rich 
and well-dressed, overbearing moneyed men of the land and 
the great, equalizing, far-seeing statesmen and leading minds 
of the world, but live and rise iirst for truth and manhood's 
cause, and money afterward, or be that don't is bound to fall 
in the tyrant's or blind-man's cause, which has fallen to rise 
no more. The sword has done its work, and done it well, 
for America, and was sheathed again through the honor and 
generalship of the Grant of America, who stood in defense 
of his country and her freedom, in accordance with the 
bequeathed command, so that the flag of liberty, which he 
protected in war, and for which he was chosen chief magis- 
trate for its guidance in peace, still waves triumphantly and 
gloriously for America and her kindred nations, so that no 
national debt can disturb her, no clime can separate her, 
and no power on the earth can disunite her; and when the 
people of the sunny South shall have eat the bread raised 
"and made with the rights of man, and drank deep in the 
truth of liberty, they will hunger and thirst no longer for the 
slaves, nor the slavery of their forefathers, nor desire no 
longer for a division-line to separate the ground which 
raised thebread of slavery; but they will breathe, one and 
all, for free labor and liberty to every one throughout all 
our boundary lines, and most assuredly as the sun will 
rise and set, in other days and other times, with all 
its refreshing light and warmth to man and nature, 
when the black and dark cloud of the war will begin to 
move away, the truth and the light which supported the na- 
tional merits of liberty of character of the constitution and 
government of the American people will be seen and known 
by the enlightened world throughout all her nations, 
throughout all her classes, throughout all her colors, and 
throughout all her difterent races of the human family. 

JOSEPH TURNER. 



LB Mr '10 , ^ 



